Wet and dry mops have been used as popular and efficient cleaning tools for many years. A form of mop which has become increasingly popular, especially for wet mop application, employs a platen-shaped cleaning head member connected to a mop handle. The cleaning head member is used to clean, polish, or dust floor, wall, or similar surfaces. Routinely, a separate removable fabric or fabric-like synthetic material cleaning sheet, which is either disposable or washable and reusable, is attached to the cleaning head member. It is this cleaning sheet which actually contacts the surface to the cleaned. Such removable sheets allow the mop to enjoy a variety of different uses—both in wet and dry applications, e.g. general mopping and cleaning, dusting, polishing, buffing, etc. When a cleaning sheet becomes soiled, it can be washed or disposed of and a replacement sheet attached to the cleaning head member.
Currently this type of cleaning appliance is being used as the basic design for what has become to be known as liquid dispensing mops. These mops expel soapy water, floor cleaning solutions, wax, or similar liquids, which are immediately used for wet cleaning/polishing application by the mop, with or without a cleaning sheet. Examples of such mops are seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,119,386, 4,971,471, and 6,101,661. However, while these and similar liquid dispensing mops are efficiently and effectively used for smooth, floor-type surface cleaning, waxing and absorption capability, they are not effective to remove ingrained, soiled areas or surfaces. For this, an abrasive scrubber member, such as a brush, wire attachment, abrasive surface strip, or the like, allows for the scrubbing and cleaning of ingrained soiled surfaces. This enhances the capability and versatility of mop with a soft mop head, which only functions efficiently when used for light surface cleaning or moisture absorption.
Abrasive scrubber type members have been used on a variety of different types of mops. As early as the late nineteenth century, brush surfaces were added to mops, as seen in the pivoted press plate sponge mop shown in U.S. Pat. No. 603,000. Other examples of abrasive brush surfaces on mops of varied configurations include U.S. Pat. No. 2,472,781, showing a brush mounted on a one piece sponge mop; U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,998, disclosing an abrasive scrubber mounted on a roller type sponge mop; U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,750, which employs a unique abrasive scrubber unit employed on a butterfly sponge mop; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,378 in which a scrubber is used on a swab mop.
To date, however, there has been no attempt to employ the use of an abrasive scrubber system on the platen-shaped cleaning head members which are on liquid dispensing mops and dry mops of similar design. This may be because the configuration of the cleaning head members of such mops, with their relatively thin design height in relation to their length, makes it difficult to maneuver the head members, in other than their normal cleaning position. The head members are not designed to be tilted, turned over, rotated, and positioned—movements which are required if an abrasive scrubber element is to be used in combination with the mop. This is particularly true of mops with pivoted handles, which most of these designs are. Attempts to use a scrubber member on such mops in positions other than the only one for which they were designed, would, as a practical matter, be difficult and ineffective. In addition, handle mounted components of the liquid dispensing mops would serve to interfere and inhibit attempts to use the mop in other than its designed cleaning position. With the increased popularity of these types of mops, there is a need for an effective system of incorporating an abrasive scrubber element.